Al-Shabab

Somalis living in the U.S. send more than $200 million to Somalia each year. Sixty percent of that country’s population gets money from outside the country to help pay for expenses like food and housing. But as of Friday, money transfers from Washington state to Somalia are shutting down.

A Somali immigrant living in Kent was arrested Wednesday on charges of fundraising for the Somali insurgent group Al-Shabaab. Her arrest could cast more suspicion on the system Somalis use to send money home.

Last week, militant group al-Shabab attacked a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing over 60 people. On Sunday, dozens of students were murdered when a group, widely believed to be Boko Haram, rampaged an agricultural college in northeast Nigeria. David Hyde talks with Peter Lewis, director of Johns Hopkins' African studies program in their School of Advanced International Studies, about extremist violence in Africa and the different groups operating there.

The deadly terrorist attack in a Kenyan shopping mall has so far left over 60 dead and many wounded. The Somali-based terrorist organization Al-Shabab claimed responsibility. While the attack came as a shock to many of us, law professor Makau Mutua says Kenya has known for a long time that an attack was coming.

Makau Mutua is the dean of University of Buffalo's Law School and member of the independent, nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. Ross Reynolds talks with Makau about the context behind this act of terrorism.

Now, the strike on Nairobi was noteworthy in part because of the group claiming responsibility. As David and Gregory mentioned, al-Shabab is a militant organization from nearby Somalia. Analyst Bronwyn Bruton of the Atlantic Council says a few years ago it would've had little reason to strike outside Somalia's borders. More recently, al-Shabab has been evolving, turned to new purposes by the influence of al-Qaida.

BRONWYN BRUTON: It emerged in 2005 in the wake of international efforts to create a government in Somalia.